Dean Barnett, RIP
I am sad. Any of you who have read here for any amount of time have had the pleasure of a Dean Barnett link. Of all the bloggers out there Dean was perhaps my favorite, right up there with Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom. I became familiar with him at Townhall.com and he later was tabbed by William Kristol for both editorial and blog writing at the Weekly Standard.
Barnett, 41, passed away yesterday after a life with cystic fibrosis, a lung disease whose typical victims lifespan is 36. That he lived everyday though it might be his last came through in the passion of his writing. The conservative movement just lost one of its wittiest, sharpest, and most cheerful warriors. He was a scratch golfer too.
Of all the writers out there he had me nodding in agreement more often than any. Conversational without being chatty or gossipy, authoritative without condescension, and always keeping things in perspective, which often meant facing hard truths about his own beliefs. Unlike most though, rather than veering away from these challenges Barnett seemed to take special pleasure in exploring them in the search for a higher truth. That last was no small feat in this highly emotionally charged political climate. The dude was a class act through and through.
The highest praise to which a writer can aspire is for someone to say he put to words what I was thinking. Barnett's prose had a clarity, brevity, and ferocity that justified that compliment routinely. All thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.
Kristol's tribute is here What a Man
a bit; Courage is a severe virtue, and those who have courage are usually serious, often stern. Dean, though, was effervescently witty and high-spirited. He had a most unusual combination of strength of character and lightness of heart.
Mary Katherine Ham, with whom he worked at both Townhall and the Standard has this poignant tribute: Permalink
a bit: He knew there would not likely be a cure in his lifetime, but welcomed each year as a gift and new treatments as grace. He would have laughed out loud if someone had tried to peg him as a "victim" of anything. Those are the makings of the toughest of happy warriors, and that's what Dean became.
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